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Advertisers Barama Company Limited
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Sugar is still the main foreign exchange earner
Since 1990, Booker Tate Ltd., a British company which provides such management services to companies in many cane sugar-producing countries, has managed the corporation on contract.
Guyana exports more than 90 percent of its cane sugar production with the bulk going to preferential markets in the European Union and the United States and the balance to Caribbean Community and Common Market countries.
Guysuco's expansion plans are in full force
Guyana Sugar Corp. embarked on a massive expansion program over a year ago. Last February the Prince of Wales and President Bharrat Jagdeo turned the first sod on the site of the new factory in Skeldon, Berbice. The new factory will be the largest with more than 20 percent of sugar production. Simultaneously, the amount of land cultivated is expected to increase from 9,880 to 34,580 acres, some 10,000 of which will be that of private farmers.
The corporation has recently put on the local market a 2.2-pound bag and hopes to produce a 4.4-pound bag soon. Marketing Manager Kirk Douglas disclosed that equipment would be bought to package of 11 pounds, just more than one pound and sachets. He said the corporation is looking at various brands of yellow crystal, Demerara dark sugar, cube sugar and coffee sugar.
Market expansion is high on agenda
Chief Executive Officer Brian Webb said that Guysuco has secured its position as a reliable supplier of sugar to its preferential customers and that this status is acknowledged within the Caribbean and in the African, Caribbean and Pacific states.
"We are feeling confident about the year 2000 and where we can place additional sugar," Webb said.
"This is a corporation that has integrity in its dealings with all its stakeholders, suppliers, customers, shareholders and employees. It is a company that is conscious of the environment and the safety of its employees and its management is becoming increasingly customer-focused," he said.
Quality is paramount
Webb was also pleased that the corporation had gained recognition for quality improvements during 1999 and pledged to make the industry one of the best suppliers within the ACP. "Quality improvements have not gone unnoticed and our reputation has been considerably enhanced by producing more than (330,000 tons) in 1999 and by improving our sugar quality," he declared.
Expressing satisfaction at the improvements in sugar quality recently, the chief executive said that this year, the corporation would try to achieve the strategic goals of being one of the higher quality producers in the ACP. This goal will start with introducing sugar driers at a number of selected factories and changing boiling systems to facilitate and sustain high-quality levels despite the quality of the crop.
The corporation's head assured the continued lobbying effort at both commercial and diplomatic levels to maintain preferential markets. This thrust will be intensified over the years.
"We are moving forward, not looking back, and the security of the industry is well in hand," Webb said with satisfaction.
History of sugar in Guyana dates back to Dutch and English presence
During the Dutch occupation in 1741, British planters from Barbados and other West Indian islands settled here and developed the sugar industry.
In 1814 when the colonies of Demerara, Essequibo and Berbice were ceded to the British, the sugar industry continued to progress, moving production from 5,000 tons to 42,000 tons. One year later, the holdings of Booker Mc Connel in Guyana had their origin when British Josias Booker landed on these shores and traveled to Mahaica.
The group, Bookers Sugar Estates Ltd., combined its resources of capital and entrepreneurship with the existing labor and land to lay the foundation for the international empire of Bookers. Bookers managed 10 of the country's then 13 sugar estates and maintained interests not only in sugar, but also in rum, shop- keeping and other industries.
Even after Guyana gained independence in 1966, the British continued their interest in the sugar industry. In fact, April 1958 spurred royal presence in the sugar industry - the first of which was a visit by Princess Margaret to the then Lusignan Estate.
To facilitate retaining a substantial part of the phenomenal increase in the price of sugar for the country, the Sugar Levy Act, No. 22 of 1974 was enacted and sugar was nationalized in 1976.
When sugar production slumped in the late 1980s, the corporation, now called the Guyana Sugar Corporation Inc., allied with London-based Booker Tate to implement a program to halt the decline and improve the fortunes of the industry. Since then the industry has been managed by Booker Tate.
In February 1994, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip visited La Bonne Intention (LBI) Estate to witness the intricacies of the field and factory departments while gaining firsthand knowledge on the operations of the Guyana Agricultural Research Unit (GARU) and aspects of sugar cane agronomy.
Today in 2000 as the industry prepares for a successful and rewarding future in sugar, the company once again embraced royalty when Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, visited its Berbice operations at Skeldon to initiate a new project - construction of a new factory and expansion of the sugar cane cultivation area with the aim of making the industry more viable in the future.
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Table of Contents President Bharrat Jagdeo pursues foreign and local investment, builds confidence in private sector |
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The Guyana Sugar Corp. (Guysuco), producer of the famous "Demerara Sugar", operates as an independent profitable commercial organization. After centuries of production, sugar still brings in more export revenue than any other product, netting $108 million in 1999 and employing more than 18,000 workers.
The expansion program includes improving the productivity of both agriculture and manufacturing, expanding the area under cultivation in the high productivity lands of Berbice, building two new large factories with modern technology and economies of scale, investing in new technology in the other factories, achieving added value from electricity cogeneration, producing branded packaged sugars, building a distillery and a refinery and expanding markets for Guysuco's sugar in CARICOM and other neighboring countries.
He noted that value-added products, already on the local market would soon reach the export market. Webb acknowledged the support of workers in the industry over the years in the achievement of goals and the realization of maximum production.